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Michael Gannon’s Demebele Piece Is Like “How Many Lies Can I Fit In One Article?”

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Michael Gannon has started my day off for me with a typically ridiculous piece of work, on Moussa Dembele, linking him with a move to Marseille. It never ceases to amaze me how many “sources” abroad this newspaper has, especially when it and its writers appear to have absolutely no nose whatsoever for major stories here at home.

This one doesn’t even sound as if it came from somewhere else, which is to say that if Gannon nicked it he’s not saying from where.

Had he quoted some obscure French newspaper I would simply be saying he copied it.

As he hasn’t bothered, and as I know he doesn’t have people at Marseille with any interest in sharing their secret transfer business with a writer at a dying Scottish newspaper I am going to crawl out on a limb and say he either got it from a “taxi-diver” type source or he made it up.

Either way, that part of the story seems ridiculous. From the basic assertion itself it moves on to how “how many lies can you squeeze into one article?”

First, Marseille’s “move for Dembele” in the summer was non-existent. So the idea that they were “scared off” by a £20 million price tag is an invention on top of an invention. Because let’s face it, what do they think they’ll be told the price tag is now? It’s be around about the same. So if they were “scared off” by it before, why even bother to come back? With him on the verge of the French national team his value is going to go up, not down.

Gannon then hints that he’ll be available to them at a lower price, a bargain basement knock-down £16 million with this line; “Brighton came close to picking up the striker for around £16m during the January transfer window.”

If by “close” he means that Brighton didn’t make an offer, that Celtic wouldn’t entertain the offer at that price, that Dembele wouldn’t have gone to Brighton if you had held a gun to his head and forced him into the back of a transit van … then yes, I guess they were close. Apart from all that and the salient detail that Brighton denied ever having made such a bid and that Celtic had denied ever actually receiving one, I think Gannon might be on to something.

Gannon then finishes up with this fresh piece of shit-stirring, and credit to him for taking another Celtic player’s words, twisting them out of context and trying to get the next set of rumours started; this one is about Odsonne Edouard.

“Meanwhile fellow countryman Odsonne Edouard has admitted he’ll wait until the end of the season before deciding his future.”

Aaaah you know what? I’ve been half expecting that since the Ibrox goal. This is The Record suggesting that other clubs will be sniffing around the player and that he suddenly has all these options he can explore. Except … no.

Celtic has the one and only option to buy, at the end of the campaign. It’s an expensive clause, but guess what? We’ve got the money. If we want Odsonne then Celtic Park is where he’ll be. It will be Celtic who “decide his future”.

This is one Odsonne is quoted as saying.

“Frankly, I am just focused on playing and finishing the season. I am not thinking about what will happen next. I am having a lot of fun here at Celtic. They are an extraordinary club with a top coach and a very big support. I want to focus on my football and help Celtic as best I can until the end of the season.”

And from that, Gannon has pulled a story which obliquely suggests the player might not see himself at Celtic Park in the next campaign. Watch out for more nonsense just like it, brought to you exclusively from Scotland’s best brand of novelty bog paper.

I personally wouldn’t even use it for that.

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